I was remembering years ago I was on a Carl Jung kick and I actually read all his works. In one, I believe it was "Civilization in Transition", Jung wrote "...in 1921 every one of my German patients exhibited symptons of psychopathological disorder" (words to that effect.) Not to compare our situation with that of 1921 Germany, but it does show that social and economic stress can play out in the mental health of a broad range of individuals. I think I heard the term "sociopath" this evening on the news of the day applied to these people who are apparently freaking out. I think that term perfectly describes the kind of behavior we are witnessing. The scale is alarming.

I would think that the Republican leaderships is failing. It was a remarkable moment when John McCain told that lady that Obama wasn't an Arab - to the senator's credit. We're just not seeing that kind of responsibility now. I think that responds to your question - yes, I think the silence among Republican leaders is contributing to the threat against President Obama.

"I want my country back."

That says it all. The fear and resentment are so deep-seated that any means is justified to re-establish the old order. The power brokers and the greed heads will feed that paranoia any way they can. And if something happens they will hold up their hands and bemoan the fact that some crazy (probably a leftie) went after the President.

I think that the greatest threat to our stability (possibly since WWII) is from within. Obama is now the focal point for right-wing rage.

To answer your question: yes.

Corporate America and that upper one percentile have far too much to lose if Obama continues in office. They won't get their hands dirty...just continue financing the "stirring of the pot." As one could plainly note while observing the August town hall CF's there are plenty of nut-cases available to assassinate our president. Look at the number of people sacrificed for access to oil. What is the dollar value of losses that Big Pharma and the health insurance industries stand to lose if the health care reformation succeeds? Follow the money.

“whether to impeach or assassinate”

Ann Coulter

That is exactly what's going on here. And although it is difficult to discuss, we must bring this topic up and call it what it is. I think we have a tendency to believe that we're "beyond history" and that we've moved past these kinds of brute force politics. But we're not. Anything could happen. Suppose we have 10%+ unemployment for the next 5 years? Protracted unemployment makes people do wacky things.

That's what the Republicans are hoping for - chaos. Just look at Pawlenty - I thought he was normal. No, he's a kook too.

It's almost like putting it out there in the universe makes it possible...

A day does not go by that I don't consider the possibility. I was 11 when President Kennedy was assasinated. I didn't understand much more than someone killed my President, and I cried for days if not weeks...I don't know if our country would survive this time. I have a hard time imagining myself resorting to violence in retaliation, but the repubs would have an enemy for life...whatever that means.

They have nurtured the environment that makes it a possibility. Anything that happens is on them.

Unfortunately, I have to agree with the article that some people of this country are hoping for an Obama assination. I am over 65 years old and remember the Kennedy Bros, MLK, Medgar Evers, etc assinations. I also begin to watch this country begin to go to hell in a handbasket. I find the mood of the country very similar to what was happening then (60's) and with the advances in technology, you are able to reach more mentally unbalanced people who will buy into the hateful rhetoric. It is so hard for me, even now, to believe that people can hate so profoundly, so deeply and then I remember some of the stories of slavery, KKK, and most recently of the integration of the US and I must painfully acknowledge that there are some people in this country who are evil, almost devil spawn, with no heart or soul.

My sense is that many in in the nutwing of the right are in some ways intentionally 'leading the horse to water' because, hey, 'they can't make 'em drink'

It's very easy to incite apparently without consequence and as long as it serves their purposes, it seems they are willing to do just about anything that they can get away with...
and they get away with 'torture, lying to congress, murder, robbing our country to line the pockets of friends, etc.'

I also remember the 50s-60s - all the killings. I don't think our country could survive it again, and I know that my generation could not. I also think we are in far greater danger now than we were then.

We were stronger, more unified at that time than we are now. In 1963, esp in the South, there was viriluent, ugly hatred .. but with rare exceptions never directed toward the President, not on the street, not this ugly. Most of America - even in the South, very much in the South - was very solid, well-behaved, sensible, and respectful of authority. You have to remember, we were coming out of the Eisenhower years and, before that, the widely-shared and justifiable pride in what we achieved during WWII.

Today ...... it's very different. Our recent past has been very shallow, divisive and very unsettling: VietNam and Iraq, Watergate, the Bushes, Cheney!!, Carter disappointment and Clinton impeachment, terrorism and 9/11, a crumbling middle class and obscenely rich upper class, and - the worst part, I think -- 100 Father Coughlins and Joe McCarthys (i.e, haters, dividers) every time you turn on the radio or TV.

The 50s and 60s may have been dull, unfair, and not so wonderful in many ways, but it was solid, we were more unified and more well-behaved than we are now. ---- AND in the biggest, ugliest clash of the time, one side, under the guidance of Martin Luther King, maintained their civility and the peacefulness under the worst of circumstances. That should never be overlooked. Ever.

We simply don't have that solid, basic American identity and sense of hope/pride that we did then. Despite it being dull, unfair and other not so wonderful things, it was a "solid" time compared to now. There is anger - too much - everywhere. Even here.

Think about it. We progressives just "won" a huge victory and have a good, intelligent, hard-working administration in the White House and control in Congress. But have you heard the vitriol, the angry impatience, the ready to give it up in disgust even here, on this relatively calm and educated liberal/progressive site?

It took most of us, certainly me, decades after 1968 to even let ourselves think with anything like deep emotion and hope about national politics. John Kerry's campaign was the first time I let myself really invest in -- and partly, perhaps largely that was out of respect for Kerry's persistence and continued belief in our system, despite living through the same time period and having directly experienced some of the worst of it.

"The Republicans" are not trying to make things worse. There ARE responsible people left in the GOP who, I know, see this and have the same concern. Unfortunately they are not the leaders who can reach these crowds. I mean - can you imagine Richard Lugar, Lamar Alexander, Orrin Hatch, the Maine Senators, Mitt Romney, Charlie Crist, etc. trying to calm a group of teabaggers who have been worked into a frenzy by Limbaugh,Coulter and Beck??

It's the HATERS - those obvious ones and Republican leaders who might make a difference but are sitting on their hands - who are either trying for dangerous chaos or simply don't care - at all - about what will logically result from their actions. (The GOP as a whole, however, can legitimately be blamed for putting one of the haters on their national ticket and for not reining her in, big time, when it became clear what she was doing.)

I don't know how one can work to bring things around now -- but, as with the civil rights period, even the "other side" can have a role in keeping things within bounds. Obama himself (who has more at risk than we do after all) knows this well, and his coolness and matter of fact, civil way of dealing with problems and people helps tremendously. (I think that's why his saying the Cambridge police acted "stupidly" had such impact: I think we are all - even his opponents - depending on him to be adult keep things calm.) We can all try to emulate that.

We can also talk to people that we meet who are on the fringe of the teabaggers, figuring that they are probably right but still not totally rejecting of calm, civil discussion.

Most of all, we can stop yelling ourselves! Not yell back at those acting is such out of control, hate-filled, and emotional fashion. Raising the temperature - even if we have every right to resentment -- is not going to help anything. And it that feels unfair, well, think how unfair it felt to John Lewis to be nearly beaten to death for simply trying to be seen as an equal citizen. He didn't give into hate and is still contributing to the system. And there were millions others who didn't give into the hate then, or - solid or not - our country might have cracked apart.

On the other side, however, to calm some of these fears ..... I focus, almost superstitiously and quite prayerfully, on the fact that Teddy Kennedy died in his own bed at the natural end of a long life. Speaking as a child of the 60's who saw his brothers fall, that simple fact proves that sometimes the foreseeable, almost guaranteed, tragedy does not occur. We can hope.